The San Francisco call. [volume], August 11, 1912, Image 6

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

Image provided by: University of California, Riverside; Riverside, CA

                
William L. Altdorfer
NEARLY every one at some period
Of life has given serious thought
t<i the possibility of securing a
home in the west. After years of
unprofitable labor in the crowded life of
the cities, the idea has appealed with
striking force- —to build a home way out
on the prairies where one might breathe
the air of freedom and get away from
the hurly burly of life as it is today in
most of the towns and cities of our land.
A home out in the open, miles and miles
away from everything, with just enough
to maintain life and a few of the lux
uries, is the ideal home thousands have
looked forward to for many years. P-ut
the great drawback up to the present
has been the restrictions of the land
laws and the long time necessary to ac
quire a title to the home.
Now Uncle Sam has stepped in and
proposes to aid all his citizens who may
want homes in the west. On the seventh
of last month President Taft signed the
new homestead law, which became oper
ative at once. The new law nearly cuts
in half the time required to own a
homestead. Under the old law a five
years' residence was required, with no
provision for a man to go away and
earn enough to tide him over hard
times. Under the new law, however,
only a three years' residence is required,
while the pioneer is permitted to be
away for five months during each year,
so that he may be able to earn sufficient
to pull him through the critical period
of homemaking in the west. There are
other radical changes provided under
the new law, which do away \v!t!i
much red tape and tecljfrieality, the
plan of the government being to make
it easy for the homeseeker to acquire
title to his land as quickly as possible.
For many yr-ars thousands of our
beat ' itizens have been emigrating , to
Canada—last year the figures were
something like ISO,OOO. Canada. being
alive to the situation, lias offered all
kinds of inducements to get Americans
to emigrate to that country. The cam
paign was unusually attractive «nd
was put in operation slowly so as not
to attract attention too quickly. But
after a while the number of families
leaving the United States became so
great that Uncle Sam became wise to
the fact that he must do something and
do that something quickly, or Canada
would very shortly depopulate a great
portion of the United States.
Investigations were started with a
view to finding out just what great in
ducement was offered by Canada. The
result of this activity revealed the fact
that the enterprising dominion north
of us had not only cut in half the time
required to secure title to a but
had raised the ani<> two or three bet
ter by actually building homes for set
tlers immediately upon their arrival,
helping them to secure agricultural im
plements, furnishing them with sfed
and the like, all of which was done on
the long time payment or installment
plan.
It was not long after these facts
became apparent that Steps, were tttkfti
to remedy conditions and do :nv;iy with
many of the restriction! :•, nd red Utpe
that honeycombed our land laws. Sen
ator William K. Borah of Idaito is the
author of the new law. and he Is 1
man who fought for it several years
in the United St.ites senate.
"The old homestead law wag enacted
i.i Itee," Paid he in speaking of the new
law, "iind bore the signature of Abra
ham Lincoln. At that time the lands of
the great middle west were subject to
entry and it was easy to get a home
stead. The old law required a continu
ous residence of five years. The groat
change in the law is that part of it
provides for only three years and per
mits the absence of the homesteader
during five months of each year.
"Another thing, under the old law
a man could not get his title until ho
had lived there five years. lie was
compelled not only to remain upon his
property for five years, but to be with
out title to it for the same iengtb of
time. lie could make no use what
ever of his title as a basis for credit,
because the title was with the govern
ment and remained there, not only for
five years, but in some cases as many
as 10 years. Again, the hompseekf"
was forced to remain on the lain! I •■
whole time, ar* because of this he
could not give his children ;
schooling, or in fact any kind of ;-■
i
ing. H<- (.iiild not leave the home
stead under an\" circumst&nces- Under
the new law lie may get his title in
three years, and earing these three
-' . n :-■ ■ ray for five months
a . : himself of - ola and at the
same time earn s , DB 'lent to pull him
through the r< ■ :>r."
Representative Edward T. Taylor of
Colorado is the man who was respon
sible for the passage oi in
the house of repr. of
these men struggled against great odds
for years.
As showing the gigantic, nature of
the work undertaken by Uncle Sam to
help the homemaker, there are now 30
projects under construction in various
sections of the country west of tiie
Mississippi, on which has been spent
more than §78,000.000. All this work
has been done under the direction of
the reclamation service. During the
last eight years the government has
built more than 6,000 miles of canals,
some of which transport whole rivers
from one section of the country to
another. It baa excavated 24 miles of
tunnels through high mountains. It
lias built something- like 28,900 canal
structures, and more than 2.996
bridges. And last but not least,
of the highest dams in the w>.rid have
been completed, in addition there!
been ;.•■■■ ~ I • i.-rigth °f :,v ' miles
of ro fa : miles of
telephone wires, ■• . w
As a result of all this work 1.1 : 1,090
acres of land ; .-...• iii-tri transformed
from a desert into the richest land in
the world.
In 1911 the value "f the crops pro
eclaimed land was more
than $_ .'. and as a i; ,, - :1 result
the land valxu a i,.iv. Increased more
than ?!f.\' ..;;.•"".
people ■•• ■ g on the farms
reclaimed from the desert,
more have been added t< th< poj ula
tiori of t !:•■ wns and villa
the irip .• . 'hood.
Nearly at! governmeni land not yot
taken up )• ined almost
wholly to the arid - I>l of the u-t st.
White these lands ai • tefe and fer
tile wl ;■ t, it is said
to be the richest land In the world for
agricultural P' I ore diffi
cult to reclaim thai the old taads at
the middle <m sU n Bl ■I ; there
is more than 490,( ,991) a< res ft, and,
under the new law, wfc •■ ■■
man to gel his tit!
time and to I . ■ .
-. thr an? •■■ -utlv pre
dict thai -win
occupy these i inda art thin ■it few
year. The biggest engineering work now
oearing completion Is that of the great
darn in southern Idaho, known as the
Arrow rot k dam. This will be the tall
eel 'i.im in the world when completed,
lag ■ helgtH of 851 (f.vt. It will
contain 550,000 c ibic yards of material.
Jus( t" state this bald fact as so many
cubic yards of material hardly gives
an Idea of the quantity of material tl>at
will go in the building of this dam. A
better idea might be given by saying
that a cubic yard i> a block three feet
high, three feet Wide and three feet
deep. If it were possible to place in a
straight line ;ill the materia! to be used
in this dam in blocks of this size the
line would be 313 miles long.
There is another great dam being con-
Btructed on the Ki<> <'rrande, in New
.Mexico. It will be known as the Engl*
IT'S NOW TWICE AS
EASY TO GET A
HOMESTEAD
IThotis&nds of
Settlers Will Be
Drawn to the
Open West by the New Law Which
Give? Title in Three Years and Permits
L an Absence of Five Months ,Qy* of
Every Twelve
dam. The work has just started, but
when completed it will be one of the
biggest structures of the kind in the
world.. Still another is that of the
Truckee-Carson dam. This work will
add another 50,000 acres of land, and it
is expected to be completed early* in the
yea-r 191< 4 ,.
Charles J. Blanchard is the statisti
cian of the reclamation service, and he
has been intimately associated with all
the work done by Uncle Sam toward
homemaking in the west. Mr. Blanchard
is an enthusiastic believer in the slogan
"America for Americans," and he be
lieves the government should do every
thing possible to keep Americans from
emigrating to foreign soil. He has trav
eled over every foot of ground now be
ing reclaimed, and is probably the best
posted man on the subject in the coun
try.
"The homemaking instinct is a well
developed trait in American character,"
eai r Mr. Blanchard, in speaking of
homemaking by the government. "Our
forefathers, who landed on the bleak
shores of New England; their descend
ants, the pioneers ofHhe middle west;
the argonauts of this generation, who
crossed the trackless plans, were im
pelled by this instinct more than by the
love of adventure or the lure of gold to
wander forth into strange lands.
"The great question of providing homes
for our people is a big one. The rapid
narrowing of the boundary of our unoc
cupied public lands and the tremendous
increase in the land values in all the
settled sections of the United States
render it increasingly difficult for a man
ef small means to get a foothold on the
land. There is congestion in many of
our cities, and the menace of a great
population of underfed and poorly
housed people increases each year.
"A nation's greatness has its founda
tion in the home of the man whose feet
are firmly planted upon his own land.
There is no national stability in a citi
zenship born and reared in tenements.
Patriotism, loyalty and civic pride are
not bred and fostered In the great cen
ters of population. The destiny of the
nation is foreshadowed by the provi
sions made for the prosperity and con
tentment of its citizens.
"And so our legislators have finally
recognized that it is a national duty to
render the acquirement of homes as
easy as possible. Areas greater in ex
tent than many of the original states
have been donated for the purpose of
making habitable unused lands. At one
time the property of the United States
embraced 1,800,000,000 acres. Today it
has been reduced to less than 400,000,
--000 acres. Out of that public land 20
vigorous commonwealths have arisen,
The San Francisco Sunday Call
and an agricultural empire has come
into being that is today the marvel of
the world.
"But the difficult part is now to come.
In many parts of the public lands still
left nature has placed in position all
the natural elements required for a
prosperous country, except rainfall.
How to overcome the absence of water
and thus bring this great region to its
proper state of development is todarj
the problem that Uncle Sam is solving
There is no question but that its suc
cessful solution will provide a safety
valve against the dangers of conges
tion in the great cities of the east.
"Then, there is the other side of the
question. The economic value of na
tional irrigation can not be measured
in dollars and cents. The desert made
habitable offers the boon of health to
him who builds a house upon It. You
can not fix the possibilities of this
great land of silence and sunshine. Its
influence is tremendous In character
molding. Instead of the dead level of
mediocrity which prevails in modern
city life, the desert offers the uplift of
vast distances, perpetual sunshine, and
the individual home, with the broader
freedom of action that comes with life
in the open. There is a constant in
spiration to industry. It is a real stim
ulation which comes from the great
life that springs from the bosom of the
desert when water is applied.
"Many projects of the government
which are ready for irrigation contain
large areas of land for sale by private
owners who are under agreement to
dispose of their holdings. Under the
reclamation law no farm will contain
more than 160 acres, the only require
ment being that every settler must re
sides upon the land and cultivates it for
three years before he secures a title.
The homestead rights of soldiers and
sailors are the same as they always
were.
"As a final word of advice I should
say that home seekers should have some
money. How much depends, of course,
upon the settler and the kind of farm
ing he expects to do. While there are
numerous opportunities to secure work
the settler with a little money and
equipment will be able to get his land
in condition earlier and will thus secure
an early income from his farm.
"A knowledge of irrigation is not
absolutely essential, as the govern
ment keeps a practical farmer on each
project to advise newcomers. A
innovation on several projects are
demonstration farms, where the gov
ernment grows crops best suited to tbat
section. These are a gTeat help to new
comers. During portions of the year
Uncle Sam gives employment to set
tlors in building canals, laterals and
roads, which is another great help,
especially during the first two or three
years, the most trying period of home
making in the west.
'"The most difficult problem the gov
ernment had to solve in reclaiming the
great southwest was the labor question.
The ordinary laborer did not like the
job, because he could not spend his
money fast enough. It was a govern
ment reservation, where no saloons
and no gambling were permitted, and
no towns nearer than 60 miles, so the
laborer did not look with favor on the
work. The real worth of the engineer
came out when he turned missionary
and held a powwow with the Aparhe
Indians, who have lived in the basin
for generations. It seems incredible,
yet it is nevertheless true, that that
engineer succeeded in fnducing several
hundred Apa-ehe Indians to go on the
payroll, and largely through their
labors the wonderful highway near
Yuma, Ariz., was built.
(ConrrUht, 1912, by William
L. Altdocfer)